A man who was seen with an imitation machine pistol got a shock when police turned up with the real thing.

Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday that Mark Mount, 26, had been riding his scooter with the gun between his legs when he was spotted by undercover officers.

Later, when Cleveland Police mounted a firearms operation, he had it on display.

Judge Tony Briggs told Mount that he could have been shot and that the maximum penalty for possession of an imitation firearm was seven years' jail.

Prosecutor Neil Clark said the undercover officers were on duty in Belk Street, Middlesbrough, when they saw a man riding a scooter in an alleyway.

The rider looked around and, with his right hand he produced a black machine gun from between his legs, put it across his left arm, looked at it, replaced it and rode off.

Three days later police mounted a firearms operation on a garage behind Albert Terrace, Middlesbrough, and found the scooter and helmet and they arrested Mount.

They went to his home and found the Heckler and Koch in his back bedroom and a Remington shotgun capable of firing ballbearings which was legally held.

The Heckler and Koch was an air soft weapon which Mount said in interview he bought for £5 from two heroin addicts earlier in the week.

Jim Withyman, defending, said Mount was taking the gun home where it was found.

Judge Briggs told Mount: "Those who wander about in public with imitation firearms of the type that you did invariably run the risk of custody, it is only the facts of the circumstances of this case which are somewhat unusual.

"It's the appearance of it and the fact that it could be used to threaten others who might not know any different, and anyone seeing it in public would be bound to inform the police, and a firearms operation as in this case would be ordered and that might end in tragedy for somebody."

Mount, of Barrington Crescent, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, was given a two-year community rehabilitation order with a Think First programme after he pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm on October 18 last year.

He was also banned from driving for six months after he also admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance.